Your worst stomach illness horror stories

Oh my, glad to hear you survived. I was reading a horror story where someone ate shellfish and died.

I never eat seafood. esp the sea is soooo polluted. Never eat sushi.

Well hope you lost a few pounds. Only upside.

Glad you’re ok, OP.

I had an experience almost identical to yours, except mine was in rural northern China, and the food was rare donkey meat. I had never (and have not since) been so sick. During the worst of it, I wondered whether I would survive.

Lima, Peru. Not entirely sure what I ate as I have always been pretty careful about what I eat in developing countries. I woke up feeling unwell in the hotel room and suddenly, while washing my hair, reeled out of the shower and did a full Linda Blair on the bathroom mirror, aiming for the sink. (Why the hell I didn't just puke in the shower I don't know but it was instinct to try to make it to the toilet, I guess.). So sick and so suffering that every time I farted... well, you know.

And I flew home that morning. Longest trip to an airport ever. God bless the flight attendant who said we're not supposed to do this, but have a Gravol.

Never take a trip without Cipro and Lomotil.

Caught a nasty little parasite at age 15 drinking from a mountain stream while hiking in the Rockies. I laid on the back seat of my parents car for about 250 miles driving toward home with dad stopping every 30 minutes or so for me to have the runs. By the 10th stop I started passing blood and what looked like bloody tissue. Hospitalized for 5 days and got scoped from above and below (particularly mortifying for a teenager) but I was so damn sick I didn't even care. I still hike but I haven't touched the water in the past 35 years

Be grateful you were an anonymous tourist in Bum Fuck, Puerto Rico. I was at a party in a large house and felt an ominous churning and seizing sensation in my abdomen. To be polite, I slipped off to a small bathroom adjacent to a guest bedroom.

Unfortunately, I had just gotten my pants and shorts around my ankles and was starting to sit down when I had very explosive diarrhea. Miraculously, there was none on my clothes but my ass was covered, along with the toilet seat and tank, the walls, towels, and toilet paper roll.

I had to use one of the towels (the only clean one) to clean my behind; the whole roll of toilet paper wouldn't have been enough and would have taken forever. I wanted out of the bathroom fast, before being discovered.

Needless to say, it was impossible to tidy up the room. I wiped and snuck out through the other door, leading to the guest room, leaving both doors to the bathroom closed.

I made my way back to the party, mortified that someone had seen me slip away. Of course, I never brought it up to the hosts, or anyone else.

I'm a little ashamed to admit that when I got up the next day, I laughed until I cried, imagining the reaction of whoever found my mess. I tried to tell myself that it was probably due to some spoiled hors d'oeuvres, and thus not my fault.

R7's post reminded me of a story a friend told me.

She was at a 4th of July party that was an indoor/outdoor thing, with most of the guests congregating outside in the sweltering heat and suffocating humidity. She said she only had a few drinks, and had eaten with them, but suddenly felt dizzy and nauseated.

She went inside and the air conditioning helped but she still felt ill so she went to a spare bedroom to lie down. All of a sudden she just started throwing up. She managed to get a bit into the waste paper basket but most of the vomitus ended up on the bedspread and rug.

Oddly, she felt much better then. She went to the bathroom, splashed some water on her face, rinsed out her mouth, and felt like a new woman.

So she fixed a Coke to settle her stomach, chatted a bit with the people indoors, and made her exit. She's been feeling guilty about not saying anything but I told her no one else would admit such a thing, either.

I said if she felt that bad, send a bottle of Resolve carpet cleaner (anonymously, of course). It really is a miracle product.

[italic]C. Difficile[/italic]. Agonizing pain and bedpans full of blood. I'll never forget it.

Why have I read R7's account on DL before?

Nothing that interesting, but still awful. I ate at a salad bar in a grocery store earlier in the day, and about 5 hours later I was walking the aisles of Target. I dropped my basket mid-shopping and ran home. After plenty of time in the bathroom and curled up on the floor below the toilet, I took myself to Cedars Sinai ER. I waited for hours and hours because I was low priority and remember every 20 minutes running to the bathroom. Was admitted and given meds/hydrated. Anyway, I am assuming it was something in the "open" salad bar as they have in grocery stores; I won't eat at them after that, especially after I saw a kids grubby hands picking up the squares of meat and putting it back.

Got splashed by the water in river in Bangok. Felt sick the next day but we were leaving. Once strapped into the seat as the plane was taxiing, I began to projectile vomit into the aisle. The stewardess was very nice and moved me into First Class and gave me some tea. But once we landed, they made me go to a medic and be thoroughly examined. They gave me shot that was not available in the US and I felt fine. They said this happens often to visitors to Thailand.

Who TF eats rare donkey meat in China & doesn't expect to die??

Last year I was hiking with my friend, and I suddenly had diarrhea. There was really nowhere hidden to go, and I couldn't wait, so I stepped as far off the fire-road near the edge of basically a cliff and started pooping. In the middle of my poop a middle-aged guy who was hiking walked up about 10 feet away from me and started watching. I said, "I'm sorry but this is an emergency." He just stood there and said: "I wanted to see the view," and he's watching me poop. There was nothing I could do because I was shitting diarrhea.

R10 I told the story on a thread last year about what to do if you get ill at a party.

That episode remains to this day vividly etched into my mind. Luckily no repeat performances.

R13 Did the hiker get a good laugh at your expense?

Gotcha, R14, it's obviously memorable!

I got sick in Santorini

I've had problems at Mexican resorts but probably from all that fruit for breakfast, not necessarily washed with the purified water they advertise in hotel bathrooms and on those little trays in the restaurants. But it's never been more than an inconvenience. Maybe my early experience has boosted my immunity.

I loved my Grandmother but there were times she could be an irrationally rigid cunt. I think I peed my pants once when I was with her, at around age three, and she never let me forget it. About five years later she was visiting us in Manchester, NH, and then she would take me to her summer cottage in Quebec, by plane from Boston. My mother and a few siblings were to follow about a week later by car. My parents drove us to some distant relatives' place in Concord, who my Grandmother wanted to see, and the relatives were to drive us to Boston to take the plane to Montreal the next day.

From the time I arrived in Concord I was not allowed to drink anything. I pretended to go pee several times that night so I could drink from the bathroom tap. The next morning I still wasn't allowed anything to drink so I resorted to drinking from the bathroom tap - and then she caught me. I hadn't locked the door. Soon we were on our way to Logan airport, stuck in traffic on that awful two-tiered highway, hot sun bearing down.

Eventually we made our way to the flight, and were entitled to a lunch that included soup and a drink. No, no liquids for my grandson. This is a good boy who has a tendency to wet his pants . Let's not let him embarrass himself. My grandmother looked like Joan Plowright back then. Again I was dying of thirst. I went to the airplane bathroom and drank from the bathroom tap. Big mistake.

Grams and I were only supposed to spend a day or two in her Montreal apartment but I was vomiting and had horrible diarrhea. Yes eventually blood from the ass as others have said. I ended up in the hospital for about ten days. Grams left for the summer cottage with my siblings and my dad while my mom stayed in Montreal while I was in the hospital.

I don't know how much weight I lost but it was a lot. I remember being delirious with fever in the hospital and calling my grandmother a mean old bag and making her cry. My Mom didn't cry, she never did, but she and I spent about a week together, just the two of us, in downtown Montreal at Gram's apartment. We went to movies and restaurants and department stores. Eaton's dining room was a real treat.

Eventually we joined the rest of the family at Gram's summer cottage near Mont Tremblant. But they were also having slightly loose bowels. The drinking water was supplied by a spring-fed well, the rest by a foul tasting artesian well. We'd been drinking from the shallow spring well all our lives. I drank it and got sick all over again. This time I lost a kidney.

Later they found a dead dog at the bottom of the shallow well. Our spring-fed well had become a tool in a feud between two of our neighbors.

...........

Well, it all started when I ordered the stuffed Gremlin in a garlic gastrique sauce...

We took a trip to Southern California when my idiot brother was about 7 in the early 70s. We crossed the border and stayed overnight in Ensenada. The motel had a pool that had gray water. I'm sure it was thick, and there was no way I was getting in there even though it was July and scorching hot. The idiot went swimming and of course swallowed some. He started getting sick in the middle of the night and puked all morning. It took forever to get back through customs and he was laying flat on his back in the back of the van and was so sick he could barely lift his head to puke.

I got nasty food poisoning on a different trip to Northern CA but I've told that story before.

I had a really vicious norovirus at Christmas a couple of years ago. I woke up vomiting with severe gut pain. Then the runs started with uncontrollable, foul-smelling black diarrhea. I had to sit on the toilet and puke into a wastebasket because the effort of barfing caused the crap to fly out the other end.

Fuck sake, R18!

I ate some Chinese food that tasted ok but obviously wasn't. I spent the night projectile shitting, and when I wasn't doing that I was on the bathroom floor in a fetal position. My stomach and intestines felt like they were being poked with knives. It was awful! Around 7am, after shitting and moaning all night in the bathroom, I was about to go to the ER when the shits and the pain suddenly stopped. The worst was over, I had 3 more bouts of the runs that morning but not too bad. This was years ago, and to this day I cannot eat Chinese food.

A friend of mine also got food poisoning from Chinese food, and he landed in the hospital for two days. He can no longer eat it either.

I had puked up every ounce of content in my stomach. But my body wasn’t finished: full body dry heaves. Have you ever puked when there’s nothing left to puke, over and over? Torture.

I ended up just sitting on the bathroom floor in a sweaty daze. This went on for a few hours. Just when I decided to head to the ER, they subsided and then stopped.

I got food poisoning from Emeril Lagasse’s restaurant at Universal studios. Both ways for a week it was a nightmare. I never left the hotel. Boyfriend enjoyed Disney Worldcw/o me and bought me a Winnie the Pooh bear. Haha. I still can visualize the wall paper in the bathroom where I spent my vacation.

[quote]This was years ago, and to this day I cannot eat Chinese food.

Same for me, but Domino's Pizza.

[quote]the effort of barfing caused the crap to fly out the other end.

I think that's s common reaction.

A friend had lunch last summer at a sketchy Southwestern place called Moe's. It was post-lunch, pre-dinner so maybe the food wasn't so fresh. Anyway, after scarfing down this enormous burrito, she finished her shopping and errands, and headed home. All afternoon she said she kept belching up something that was like rotten eggs and she felt increasingly queasy.

She just kept thinking she'd be fine if she got home and took some Pepto-Bismol but her apartment was 20-25 mins. from the mall where she'd been shopping. So finally, she's home, rushes up to the front door, and while she's fiddling with the keys, has near projectile vomiting, all over the front door and stoop. To make matters, those powerful abdominal contractions set off a chain reaction and she filled her panties.

And, just to complete her humiliation, the neighbors' children were playing outside and witnessed the whole thing, accompanied by much squealing and laughter. For a long time afterward, the brats simulated retching whenever they saw her. I reminded her that, on the bright side, at least the kids didn't know she'd shit her pants!

This is why I never eat anything from one of those open salad bars in stores. Salads, chicken, potatoes etc are sitting there all day in the open and who knows who has been sneezing and coughing all over the stuff.

I had alcohol poisoning once and never stopped puking. I was riding with a friend after a concert and we had to stop at every five minutes for me to puke. I had gotten so drunk at the concert and then everything started spinning. Not a good sign. I got home and slept in the bathroom. Woke up the next day on the bathroom floor with the worst hangover.

r29 I've never touched a salad bar, because I'm paranoid about getting sick.

[quote]This is why I never eat anything from one of those open salad bars in stores. Salads, chicken, potatoes etc are sitting there all day in the open and who knows who has been sneezing and coughing all over the stuff.

They have one of those olive bars at the King Soopers in my neighborhood in one of those island type displays, and they don't have covers over the food. That food sits out for like 12 hours a day while hundreds of people walk by.

The worst case of food poisoning I ever got was at my college cafeteria. It often served Chinese food, and one day I decided to eat the General Tso's chicken, which I'd never had before. As soon as one of the pieces of chicken slid down my throat, I knew something was horrifically wrong. I didn't feel nauseous and it didn't taste weird or anything. I can't describe the feeling. It was best described as "everything tastes and looks okay, but something's not right." Bit into one half of the second piece of chicken, felt it go down my throat and that's when I knew I was poisoned. Again, didn't taste anything weird or foul but right after that little chunk, I had the instantaneous feeling of "coming down."

Less than six hours later, I was violently retching and crapping out of both ends nonstop for the Entire. Next. Day. It was so bad that it started feeling as if my insides were going to turn inside out. I didn't feel any pain (knock on wood) but had cold chills and that feeling of just wanting to crawl into a hole and die. I'm amazed to this day that this all stemmed from a piece and a half of battered sesame chicken that combined were probably smaller than the palm of my hand (I have really small hands). I probably would've been hospitalized or died had I eaten the whole thing.

In any event, because of that incident, I don't go anywhere near any Chinese takeout dish that has battered chicken covered in that sticky orange sauce, especially if it has sesame seeds. I just can't.

Similar story but in Kolkata India in the middle of the monsoon. A place and time of year i would wish on no one. The great thing about 3rd world bathrooms is that the toilet/shower are in the same area so you can just hose down the room and yourself after exploding from every orifice. The semi funny/strange part: After no solid food for 4-5 days I could feel those first few meals SLOWLY make their way thru my empty digestive tract. I don't think it's a sensation anyone is used to.

As a critique of the america health care system: Flu season and I've got a fever and chills. Over the course of three days I watch as my temp keeps rising. Finally by Sunday morning it's hitting 101F and I'm semi delirious. Maybe, just maybe, this is enough to warrant an antibiotic or at least a doctor's note so I can have an excused day or two off. Make my way to the urgent care. The nurse wants to take a throat swab. I tell her I'm nauseous. She hands me a little basin while making tut tut noises. The minute the swab touches the back of my throat I projectile vomit a white and sulphur yellow stinky mess all over her. She flees in horror. I get my Z-pak 10 minutes later. Didn't mention I had eggs sunny side up an hour earlier.

R28, that sounds like giardia.

Oh ! How supportive and caring you are, cold tile on the bathroom floor..... How I love to lay on you with a wet cold washrag on my neck or forehead

me, too

me, too.

Every body ! Be safe. jesus..... gives me the creeps just reliving the experiences, am i right? OI.

I Love You All

Let me guess (R18), your grandmother lived at 1/ Le Chateau, 2/ Acadia or 3/ The Linton..

[quote] This is why I never eat anything from one of those open salad bars in stores.

Not even once around the garden!

Getting antibiotics in NYC is like pulling teeth. I rarely need them but maybe once a year I ask because I know it helps my diverticulitis or sinus infection. End up going to CVS or some place random because they are so friggin crazy about it.

I once ate some yogurt that had gone off. Later that night I started to feel ill. I was visiting my mom and things progressed from diarrhea to projectile vomiting to both at the same time. Eventually all I had left to vomit was fluorescent green bile. I remember crawling down the hallway of my mother's house because I would start to black out every time I lifted my head above my heart. Finally I told my mom to call 911 because I was too sick to crawl out to the car. EMTs showed up and my BP was 70/30. Those cute firefighters carried me to the ambulance but I was too sick to enjoy it. I spent the night in the ER and ended up getting 3 liters of saline.

Moral: never eat room temp yogurt.

I caught Norwalk somewhere between the Virgin Atlantic premium lounge in LHR and the flight home. I started sweating profusely at baggage claim and got home in time to have it coming out of both ends. I was on the toilet and the smell hit me and I ended vomiting all over myself, at that point I went to the hospital. They gave me fluids and medication to help settle my stomach. I lost 15 pounds in a week.

Horrible food poisoning from a steakhouse during a trip to the west coast. Everyone that went was horribly ill and we looked like the life had been taken out of us by the time we flew back. I was out of commission for 2 days after we returned, and this was days after eating at this place.

All my major incidents of stomach illness have involved beef. Everything else I might just get an upset stomach, but my body just completely goes bonkers if I eat bad beef. Now I will not order any beef dishes when I eat out.

I was in new orleans. A friend was having a big party on the steamboat Nachez. Included was a dinner buffet. It was terrible. I was the only one that had the pea soup.

That night, I started feeling ill. Intestinally ill.

Pea-green diarrhea. I was shitting every few minutes, literally, for the next 48 hours. I couldn't sleep. I fell asleep a couple times and immediately shit the bed. It was terrible. It was agonizing. Finally, about 4 hours before I had to leave for the airport to catch my plane home, it abated just enough for me to run down to the lobby and get some water, a boost smoothie (first food I'd eaten in nearly three days), and some Immodium AD.

Immodium always works like magic for me. I take one dose and won't poop for three days.

I was feeling like crap all the way home, but I made it without shitting myself.

It was two more days before I felt okay, and another day before I pooped again, and it was a full week before my poop was totally back to normal.

Worst. Vacation. Ever.

I tipped extra to whomever the unfortunate soul was who had to clean my hotel room. I kept housekeeping out for THREE DAYS. Ugh.

I have never been back to New Orleans.

R44 here. The irony is: The pea soup was the only thing I had from the dinner buffet that actually tasted good. It was pretty good split pea soup.

I know it had to be the soup, not just from the color and smell of what came out of me... but because I was the ONLY one that got sick, and the ONLY one from my party that had the soup.

I have no idea if anyone else on that cruise got sick. I never heard anything. But then again, it's not like I would have been able to hear anything. I was too busy trying not to shit myself constantly to even watch TV.

yes, I had it a few times, but I think I caught it from someone and it was the stomach flu. Puking and shitting the whole night, slept in bathroom. After that, just bleached every surface in the apt, didn't want to pass it on to my partner.

When travelling, always pack powered pedialyte, my fav flavor is grape. Good for hangovers or helps prevent dehydration and replace nutrients and electrolytes lost through vomiting and diarrhea in adults, children & infants.

My sympathies to all of you who had to suffer through puke/shit food poisoning explosions while traveling. God, I can only imagine. The pukes and the shits are bad enough when you're at home, but when you're traveling that has to be the fucking WORST.

Bangkok. On the last day of a great trip I completely forgot where I was and brushed my teeth with water from the tap. I was flying home to Portland that day and managed to make it home before the chills, vomiting, diarrhea and dizziness hit I have to admit that whatever I got was a great diet. After that week I was able to wear some jeans that. I hadn't worn since high school.

About 10 years ago, there was a place here in Studio City called, "Killer Shrimp." Friends of mine raved about it. I finally went and got some. About an hour after eating it, I started having the worst stomach cramps I've ever had. It felt like someone was stabbing me over and over. I was on the toilet shitting at the same time I was leaning into my shower puking. This happened every 5 mins from 10pm until 5am the next morning (I started tracking it to see how often it was happening). I finally just stayed in the bathroom instead of trying to crawl back into bed only to have to drag myself back to the bathroom 5 mins later. I was actually lying there, begging for death. I wanted the pain to stop. In hindsight, I should have gone to the hospital. Finally the puking stopped and I was able to sleep. But I couldn't eat anything except white rice for about a week.

Killer Shrimp is right. I had a similar bout with food poisoning a few years later and drove myself to the hospital. That time it was from pizza. The emergency room visit cost me around a grand. Wish I hadn't gone. But honestly, you have to be careful when this shit happens to you. You can die from dehydration.

A friend of mine was coming home from some event one night and suddenly felt sick to his stomach in the car. He didn't quite make it to his front door.....he was about to shit his pants, but didn't want to ruin his fancy expensive suit do he dropped his pants, squatted and did a massive shit explosion on his front lawn. He then stripped naked (on the front lawn) and went in his house to wipe his ass and take a shower. Thankfully, it was at night and pitch dark out so his neighbors didn't see anything.

When he told me this story, I was dying laughing.

We ate at El Coyote in L.A. on August 8, 1969. We'll never do THAT again...

R49 I remember Killer Shrimp, though I never actually tried them.

Damn....that was ten years ago??

Dear Lord in Heaven!

I went with my bf for lunch at a Chinese restaurant we had never been to before. I forget what I ate there. That night he went to a party and I stayed home because I had not been invited, and I soon felt nauseous. I went to bed with the chills and when he came home he found me shivering. He asked me why I hadn't called him at the party, but I knew what a party animal he was. I tried to use the bathroom but nothing came out. He dressed me and tried to walk me to the 24 hour doctors but I found I couldn't walk because of the dizziness. He got us a taxi and was on my back on the back seat and we went to a hospital ER. There I was so sick I couldn't sit in the waiting room seat - I had to be on the cold floor. The admissions nurse was pissed I was on the floor but I couldn't help it. A doctor finally came and got me and took me inside and asked me to tell her what I had eaten, repeatedly. I got so mad at her that I did the Terms of Endearment Give me the Shot! She did and the all the nausea and dizziness faded and I went back home. Interestingly my bf never got the same food poisoning I assume I had, though I suppose he ate something different to me.

Peru. Twice. Visiting my family. First time I was 13. Dysentery that caused me to lose 10 pounds in one week. The second time was when I was 18. I almost shit my pants in the middle of the street. Lomotil is your friend in Latin America. I also got Hepatitis B in Venezuela from eating raw oysters.I developed jaundice and thought couldn't keep food down. I still love South America. I just leaned to be more careful what I eat.

Shanghai. I made it through a conference for a week, then another week being a tourist. After I checked in for my 12+ hour flight home, I made the unfortunate choice to have a bite to eat before boarding. About an hour into the flight, I started sweating and felt my stomach doing cartwheels. I went to the restroom and splashed cold water on my face. Then I passed a tiny gas. The smell nearly made me pass out, so I opened the door and started to exit, but I realized the impending explosion. For the first time in my life, I sat on an airplane toilet seat. Odoriferous hot lava poured from my butt for about ten minutes. I must have flushed at least 20 times. But it kept coming. I wiped as best I could and returned to my seat. Two minutes later, I ran back to the restroom, where I spent the next 30 minutes. Two flight staff checked on me. When the worst finally passed, I staggered back to my seat. One flight attendant stealthily brought me three cans of club soda and some crackers and whispered that she was aware of what was happening to me. For the rest of the flight, I periodically rushed to the restroom until, by the time we were on approach to LAX, only yellow, viscous fluid was coming out, along with blood. I made it through Immigration (thanks to Global Entry) in good time and retrieved my bag, but I passed out in line to turn in my customs form. This was about 5PM. I awoke around 6AM in a hospital room. They said that they'd given my four liters of hydration and released me. I ended up with a bladder infection from the severe dehydration and it took about two weeks before I felt normal again.

Beef stir-fry.

Marrakech. Must have been from the hotel buffet as we didn't drink the water but my companion who was well-travelled and hadn't even got the shits in India was as bad as me. We'd have to take turns using the toilet and ended up necking so much loperamide we ended up with constipation.

We had a six hour each way trip across the Atlas Mountains to the Sahara and spent the whole time petrified we'd shit ourselves. We learned two days before we were due to leave that we'd had an upgrade so could have ordered pool-side food service thus could have avoided the buffet but the damage had been done by then.

Not quite r38. It was the Regency on Cote Des Neiges just south of Pine. A yellow bricked highrise from the early 1960s.

Sushi restaurant in suburban north shore Chicago. Violently ill for days. Will never eat sushi again.

Puking while on Ambien: Can never sleep on a plane and had a long haul flight to Japan. Ate the in-flight meal plus a couple drinks then took the pill. Woke up in the middle of the night puking. Really it was the 80 year old Japanese fellow shaking me awake as I was spewing over him as well. Ambien gives you such a sense of dissociation/ who cares. I would puke in the royal blue airline blanket, roll it to a clean section and puke again. The flight attendant hoisted me out of my seat and aimed me for the bathroom. I was tired and decided I would rather sit/sleep on the spiral staircase (747) I was again tossed into the bathroom. When I finally cleared I made apologies all around. Cleared Japanese customs in my puke stained khakis. A week later in the Kyoto tourism office a woman from across the room spotted me and shrieked, " Your the puker from the plane"

R60 Oh my, damn, they must have had to bleach the plane after you were on it. That is just terrible.

I puked all over the prime minister of Japan.

yeah R62 I wish I was a trend setter rather than a follower

OMG! This thread is hilarious.

During freshman year of college in a dorm on a weekend. Everyone had it, so not sure if it was food poisoning from the dining hall or Norovirus but I think everyone got it.

Picture it, common restrooms with everyone puking constantly. People puking in the halls when they couldn't make it to the restroom in time. People puking in the sinks because all the stalls were full. There was puke virtually everywhere and the janitorial staff was gone on weekends.

When they came in on Monday morning, I bet they just wanted to turn around and go back home.

Oops I crapped my pants!

[quote]I once ate some yogurt that had gone off. Later that night I started to feel ill.

Interesting to know. I always had the idea that, unless they were moldy, things like yogurt and sour cream were fine past the date because they were already soured.

[quote]It was post-lunch, pre-dinner so maybe the food wasn't so fresh.

That's a bad time for any restaurant but especially buffet style places where the lunch leftovers are still out. One of the sickest times of my life came from eating at the buffet at a chain steakhouse called Ponderosa. I'd also extend that to places like cafeterias, Subway, and Moe's where the food is buffet style but the employees assemble it to order.

Southwestern Turkey. Heading to a secluded beach, people were selling fresh fruit. I bought figs from an old withered crone, and as I paid, I noticed the dirt of her hands. Clearly that bitch hadn't washed since her momma shat her out. At the beach I washed the figs in salt water, then rinsed with Volvic. Heaven! Melted in the mouth. Forty minutes later I had explosive diarrhoea. Shat my guts out for a couple of days. Wound up on a drip for a day in the local ER, and felt like hell for the rest of the holiday. She was the spawn of Satan.

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Chipote. They had a lot of problems with customers shitting themselves after eating.

Shitting yourself domestically is far less interesting than international diarrhea

R69, we all use "Chipotle Away" to keep the blood-stains off our underwear

After one spoonful of turkey soup at a diner in CT I realized that it was made from spoiled sliced turkey cold cuts. In a few hours I had the most painful explosive vomiting and convulsive diarrhea, each like a firehouse, at the same time, into the tub and toilet simultaneously. My neighbors, hearing the loud vomiting, thought I was being attacked. I basically slumped onto a bag of laundry for a few hours, then passed out. The next day I felt like I had been hit by a car. My doctor said that I sprained the accessory muscles that run between my ribs. True food poisoning feels like this. Very violent and with a pounding headache that feels like you may have a stroke. It’s really, really nasty. Elderly people sometimes don’t survive. I was lucky, but out of commission for a week....blech it was so awful. And I’m tough!

There used to be a Moe's in my neighborhood and a friend who worked there said to never get anything made with chicken because the chicken wasn't chicken.

The "chicken" came in a liquid enclosed in a bag that you poured onto the griddle. As it heated up it congealed like eggs do and that was Moe's "chicken".

Not from food poisoning but from Meniere's, an inner ear disorder. My first vertigo attack happened on a Friday night. I had a friend over, we had just smoked a single shot of pot and I had about 1/2 bottle of beer. We were looking a a take out menu in my room when all of a sudden I had no balance. I laid down on my bed and started puking within a few minutes. I crawled to the bathroom and was in there for five hours first puking then painfully dry heaving. I ended up giving my car keys to my friend so she could drive herself home.

I didn't have another vertigo attack for 20 years when I started into menopause. I went thru hell for about five years.

I was on one of those bus tours through Europe. Woke up in the middle night in my hotel in Holland, vomiting profusely. I figured it would pass, so I got on the bus that morning, headed for Germany. I spent the next 4 hours in the bus toilet puking my brains out on the way to our next stop. I honestly thought I was dying, but it turned out to be a 24-hour thing. I still have no idea what happened, as I didn’t eat anything strange and nobody else on the bus got sick.

Atlantis, a large Bahamanian resort, with friends. Went to a higher-end Japanese place on property the first night. Had several drinks and then some kind of shrimp dish. Woke up at 1am with sharp, shooting pains in my stomach. Assumed I'd overdone it with the booze, and pounded some Gatorade and lay down again. BIG mistake. Immediately began projectile vomiting red Gatorade and shrimp pieces off the bed and onto the floor. Luckily i had my own room. Began heaving everywhere, but nothing came out. Made it to the bathroom. Hunched over the bowl, suddenly streams of greenish brown bile began just pouring out. I was sweating and sobbing. I puked so hard I burst a blood vessel in my eye. Went on like this all night. My stomach was convulsing and I thought I'd upchuck my organs. I could not stop heaving. Met friends for brunch the next morning and could only sip water. Felt weak the rest of the trip and ate only bland foods and no booze. My ab muscles hurt so much I was wobbling like a geezer and couldn't stand up straight.

R74, is that when you get crystals in your ear? I had my first bout of something similar this past January; funny how like others here, I had Chinese food (orange chicken but from Cheesecake Factory so not sure if it's really 'chinese') but I felt rather unsettled. I had other items too but this was the one that wasn't right. I went to bed uneasy and woke up, dizzy, and when I tried to stand up from bed, I basically dropped to my knees then hit the floor. I crawled army-style to the bathroom and started vomiting, then I realized I had 'to go' so I grabbed the trash can nearby and yes, one of the worst feelings is running from both ends.

I think I was in such shock from the dizziness, then my stomach sickness and all of this combined made for a fun week & a 1/2. Definitely not on menopause, but similar feeling to what you had. Laying down doesn't help the spins in this case, it really is awful.

r72 I've heard that bad turkey is one of the worst things a person can eat.

Some of you might have been suffering from a bilious headache, not food poisoning.

My "little" brother had some bad vomiting sessions that turned out to be gall bladder attacks. He and a few of his fellow fatty friends have had their gall bladders removed.

A wave of DARK BROWN FECES...

Before I was diagnosed by a gastroenterologist with the dreaded IBS (which I now successfully manage with psyllium supplements and a low lactose and fructan diet) I frequently suffered from chronic diarrhoea and cramps, triggered by over-consumption of the foods I cannot tolerate. It was pure misery. I assumed I was picking up viruses, due to my immune system being weakened by the very stressful job I had back then - teaching.

One miserable morning in a bitterly cold winter I woke with rolling stomach cramping and the shits. I had a class to teach. I lived about a 30 minute walk from the campus and didn't have a car. I somehow made it out the door, hoping I had crapped out all there was to crap out, Wrong. I passed City Hall on my way to work. Outside the building my stomach suddenly cramped so badly I knew I was in danger of shitting myself there in public, on the street. I almost ran into City Hall to locate a restroom. I made it in time but I'll never forget how utterly miserable I was that morning, shitting in City Hall.

R21, you’re “idiot” brother was fucking 7! Where the fuck were your “idiot” parents?? How old were (idiot) you??

I got food poisoning for the first and only time of my life after eating crab bisque from Chickie's and Pete's in South Philadelphia. The strange thing is that I barfed just once that night and felt fine...the next night, I woke up with your traditional food poisoning symptoms. I really can't add much to what's been said on this thread, but it really is amazing how horrific food poisoning is. The vomiting non-stop, the diarrhea...and yes, as was stated up thread, there is nothing worse than dry-heaving when there's nothing to throw up. I made myself drink water just so it wouldn't burn my throat.

By day two I had had enough and decided to smoke a little pot. I got high and the illness went away. I don't think I'd have been able to smoke pot during the height of the illness, but I'm pretty sure it helped me at the end when I just wanted it all to go away.

Food poisoning is really exhausting. It just destroys your will to live.

Ugh - Chickie & Pete’s - not surprised. Surly, careless, Philly workers serving crap food to Philly fatties. The “healthy” option compared to Genoa.

The sad thing, r85, is that I still get crab fries at Phillies games. They're just too good and such a Phillies game tradition. Can't help it.

Same as OP's, but in Oporto, Portugal, after eating not-homogenized cheese at dinner. Finally got an ambulance to the hospital, got medicine, and was driven back to our hotel because the (unbeknownst to me) Portuguese doctor knew my brother-in-law!

I once traveled to a developing country and had dysentery for a full month. Everything I ate reappeared in the toilet bowl within 30 minutes of consumption. Every. Single. Thing. Half digested, I could recognize the spring mix from the salad I ate for lunch or the oats and seeds from the multigrain bread my sandwich was on. I couldn’t eat out unless I wanted to have explosive diarrhea in public. 2 weeks into this I dragged myself to a bar for happy hour with friends. Had half of one beer, felt my stomach CHURNING immediately, hopped in a cab to shit at home and stayed in after that. Finally cleared up after a month.

[quote]I basically slumped onto a bag of laundry for a few hours, then passed out

hahaha! you poor bastard

Do people call in sick to work? At my job, I can’t take sick days. I’ve had to go to meetings, travel, work late within 24 hours of food poisoning. I’m always shocked that people actually can just call in sick. (Yes, I hate my job but need it)

That's probably not even legal, R90. And they'd change their policy in a minute if you showed up with something contagious like mumps or measles, got everyone else sick, and faced the threat of a lawsuit for wrongful termination.

R90, you are legally entitled to sick time. Get a new job. Change careers if you have to.

shitting yourself is bad enough...i can't imagine shitting or puking your guts out in places like bus toilets, airplanes and other disgusting places...ewwww...

In fact, you should call in sick the next time, R90. Make sure you have a doctor's note and if they fire you, sue their asses while enjoying unemployment and spend the time looking for a better gig.

R77, crystals in the ear are easy to fix using the Epley manuver, where you move your head in a series of moves to put the crystals back where they belong. I wish that is what I had. I was actually a patient of Dr. Epley's for several years. He tried everything but couldn't help me. I went to several other specialists but nothing they tried worked either.

For some reason the hormone change that women go through will spike the symptoms of Menerie's for those who have it. I'm so glad I'm passed it now.

R7 The last part of your story made me laugh so hard. You poor thing!!

CREAM CORN? WHEN DID I EAT CREAM CORN??!?

(AND IS THAT...RASPBERRIES!!!!)

R89 Yeah, not my finest moment. I still have that laundry bag, though.

[quote][R21], you’re “idiot” brother was fucking 7! Where the fuck were your “idiot” parents?? How old were (idiot) you??

Chill, frau R83. My parents had dosed the idiot with Immodium and Pepto and some other shit to get him past it but it still had to work through his system.

My parents warned all of us not to swim or drink any of the water and the idiot thought he knew better.

And I was ten.

I'm getting diarrhea just from reading this thread.

I ate a couple of hot dogs off of the food truck at work (big mistake!). A half hour later my stomach hurt and then I started to sweat. I left work early since I was not feeling well and made it home in time to sit on the toilet and felt like I was losing my insides. Spent the night on the bathroom floor since I was puking and shitting every couple of minutes.

I've had gastric bypass surgery in 2011 and had gastric bypass revision surgery this past February. I have had nothing but issues and severe symptoms and complications throughout the whole experience(s). The only positive thing is the complication symptoms have subsided for the past 6 weeks and I'm thin.

[quote] I got food poisoning in a rural part of Puerto Rico

No, you didn't OP. You just wanted to start one of your race bait threads.

I was on tour in Detroit when I woke up one morning feeling a little queasy. Like an idiot, I decided the thing to settle my stomach was some tomato juice. Bad idea! I didn't quite make it to the toilet and projectile vomited all over the bathroom tiles. Since I had just drank the tomato juice, for a moment I thought that I had just puked out a gigantic amount of blood. Linda Blair had nothing on me.....

r103, um...no. wrong person.

R7, did you at least anonymously send your hosts a new set of towels and a couple of hundred dollar bills to cover the clean up costs?

Obviously, the towels were a done deal, and if their walls were wallpapering, I would have anonymously sent them at least a grand.

Personally, I would have pulled the host aside and taken care of it with a check, right there and then. I mean, shit happens.

Bangkok, of course.

I've got a cast iron constitution and had backpacked my way through Bali, Java, Sumatra, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand over two months. I'd had a bit of a tummy grumble in Sumatra from buffalo yoghurt, but otherwise I'd been fine. The day before I was to fly home I started to feel light headed and trembly, then the stomache cramps started, it felt like my whole abdomen was a water filled balloon. I kept waiting for the vomiting and diahorrea to start. About midnight the flood gates opened at both ends and I thought the worst of it was over. I still felt too hot to go to bed so sat on the concrete floor and fell half asleep, while burning up. Suddenly about 2am "the fever broke". It really was just like in one of those old movies, my clothes were soaked in sweat and I ended up sitting in a pool of it.

I somehow made it to a pharmacist the next morning and down a couple of immodium before staggered to the airport, looking like some junkie on a mule run. I managed to accidently check my hand luggage in and had to beg the staff to bring it back as it had my drugs. Then I got sat next to a retired Cheif Inspector who had headed up the Lockerbie bombing investigation. I really didn't need to hear about bagging body parts right then.

Well, not a stomach illness, precisely.

Not me, but my friend ate shellfish purchased from a roadside vendor in rural Mexico. Almost died. Spent MONTHS in the hospital. Ugh!